


Kindness in Lies

by rythmicjea



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Rose gets her happy ending, We're all thinking it, based on a meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 09:17:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rythmicjea/pseuds/rythmicjea
Summary: So, I've been running around with this headcanon all summer. I have a massive project I'm supposed to be working on but this just wouldn't let go. It was supposed to be a drabble! A short little fic. Then... I don't know what happened. It just took hold and wouldn't let go. We all know the meme by ParalleltoParallel on Tumblr. This is sort of an extension of that. I hope you enjoy.





	Kindness in Lies

Jackie walked out of the TARDIS and recognized where they were. “Bloody Norway?!” She looked around at the people trying to figure out what exactly was going to happen. Was she going to lose Rose again, now that she had The Doctor back? The Metacrisis Doctor had exited the ship first, his one heart pounding erratically with nerves. Rose followed Jackie wordlessly. Out of the corner of her eye Jackie saw The Prime Doctor making his way out. Everyone thought she was stupid and that she didn’t know better. She knew she wasn’t the brightest but there was one thing she would always do. Protect her daughter. “Your father is on the nursery run.” The older blonde reminded her daughter. 

Jackie caught up to The Metacrisis Doctor, knowing full well that Prime could hear her. “I was pregnant, d’ya remember? Had a baby boy.” 

The memory came into the clone’s mind. It was one of the darkest days of Prime’s life. The strangest thing was occurring as she brought it up, he was reliving it for the first time but the memory was old as time itself. There was something in Rose’s voice when she told him about 'the baby'; but, Jackie was staring at him expectantly. “Ah brilliant! What’d ya call him?” 

“Doctor.” 

She said it with such sincerity. The Metacrisis was taken aback. He’d never known Jackie to be deceitful. She most assuredly was _not_ when it came to him. Well, Prime. It was the hitch in Rose’s voice he was envisioning. “Really?” he said timidly. 

“No, you plum.” Jackie giggled. “His name is Tony.” Tony was what she wanted to name Rose if she was a boy. 

Voices broke their conversation. This universe was being sealed off forever this time. The Doctor. The Prime Doctor was leaving with the redhead. Something was tossed to the Metacrisis Doctor, a piece of TARDIS coral. Something that they could grow for their very own. Rose approached the Prime Doctor with the Metacrisis following. 

“No. But I spent all that time trying to find you. I’m not going back now.” Rose’s voice cracked and she could feel the tears starting to well. 

“But you’ve got to. ‘Cause we saved the universe, but at a cost.” The Prime Doctor looked at his clone still unable to make of what had just happened. “And that cost is him.” 

A part of The Doctor committed genocide. He had done it once before and vowed never to do it again. It was the biggest regret of all his lives. 2.47 billion children. Yes, it was the daleks, and yes that whole fleet could have destroyed the cosmos. But that wasn’t the _point_. And here he was, back in the parallel universe watching his pink and yellow human failing to keep her tears at bay. He was doing everything he could to convince her this was best. If Donna had never touched his hand then he would have sealed Jackie back off in this universe and taken Rose with him. But this way… This way she could have him. She could be happy. He wouldn’t have to watch her die. Maybe he was selfish in all of this, but in that big brain of his, he couldn’t fathom any other way. 

It was Donna that was able to make her listen, if only for a moment. The Doctor watched, bittersweetly, as the other him was promising Rose everything she had ever wanted. Oh how he had longed to say those words to her. And when she felt for the human heart, phantom pains is what they called it, The Doctor would swear that he could feel her hand against his chest. 

The TARDIS started to howl as the doors to the universe were beginning to seal off. The moment between his Rose and his human self broken. He hated goodbyes. He thought maybe he could just sneak off or give a quick salute. But no. His Rose wouldn’t let that happen. It would be a while before she would comprehend it all. Comprehend that even if he was the original, his Metacrisis self was the same. 

Then she asked. No, demanded, for the answer that had plagued the two of them since he last left her on this bay. 

“I said, ‘Rose Tyler…’” 

“Yeah? And how was that sentence going to end?” She pressed. 

Now it was his turn to breathe. To be as robotic as he possibly could. He had hoped it wouldn’t come to this but he had learned so very long ago to never underestimate her. “Does it need saying?” He had to break her heart… again. It was the only way. 

“And you Doctor?” She looked at Metacrisis, afraid that he would do the same. She wasn’t sure if her heart could take it. 

_Prime locked eyes with his counterpart and nudged his head for him to follow._

_There was a secret corridor he went to when he needed a moment. When the pain became too much or the memories too strong. Prime didn’t need to specify, Metacrisis already knew._

_“I’m taking Rose back,” The Doctor said flatly._

_“You’re bonkers.” Donna’s vernacular sounded strange coming from his lips. “You’ve just got her back, mate. You’re really going to let her go?_ **_Again_**_?”_

_“I have to. You _**_know_**_ that. But, if I can’t be with her then I need you to stay with her. You can love her like I couldn’t. I did my best. She’ll tell you otherwise, but it wasn’t enough. _**_I_**_ was never enough for her.”_

_“We were.” The Metacrisis Doctor protested. “You might not have said the words but you said it in other ways.” Flashes of the Satan’s Pit ran in his mind; the countless nights that they stayed up with the TARDIS door open just staring into space; days when they were too exhausted to go out so she just curled against his side sleeping with the smell of her shampoo filling his senses._

_“Humans… They might need to see to believe. But sometimes seeing isn’t enough. Tell her what I couldn’t.”_

The Metacrisis Doctor leaned down to Rose’s ear, his predecessor's voice encouraging him, “_I love you_,” he whispered. 

The Doctor felt the words leave his clone’s lips. Felt the hole in his hearts grow bigger as he watched Rose grab his lapels and kiss him. The other him. It was Donna that pulled him away. If he had stayed a moment longer he didn’t know what he would have done. Switched places maybe? See how much of a glass jaw he had? No. It was better this way. He knew that there would be some growing pains. She would treat his human half like he was brand new. He knew himself enough to know he would finish her sentences when she would start to talk to him like he was absent through their memories. It would take Metacrisis talking about their own memories for her to understand. But in this moment, in this moment it was the only way to prove that they were one in the same. 

He didn’t see Rose run after the TARDIS as it disappeared or see his twin take her hand as his previous face had done so long ago. He didn’t see himself take the love of his life into his arms as she cried or hear the apologies whispered against her blonde locks. 

\--- 

There were perks when your father headed up Torchwood. For example having a chartered jet whenever it was needed. Rose held onto the new Doctor’s hand but she never took her eyes away from the window. His mind itched to reach out. But all he knew he could say was “I’m sorry. He couldn’t say it, but I can. I will love you until my last breath.” But he had already said those things on the beach. And he would say them every moment he could until she believed him. 

Everything they did, he took in stride. He had never flown in a plane before. It took all his willpower to _sit still_. In the car, Jackie chatted with Pete on the way back to the mansion. Still Rose never let go of this new Doctor’s hand, but she never spoke a word or made eye contact with anyone. 

It was the same home as before, though fixed after the Cybermen attack. The Metacrisis Doctor gave his appreciation for the renovation. When they pulled up, this new Doctor bounded out and ran over to Rose’s side opening the door for her. Holding out his hand he gave her a brilliant smile and only received a twitch on her lips in response. She wouldn’t let him get close again. Shrugging off his arm when he went to put it around her shoulders. Instead she took his hand. 

This Doctor should have been listening to Jackie and Pete on the drive. He knew better than to not let anything go past his notice. But, his attention was on Rose and what she would do and his solitary heart had been beating hard and fast with anxiety in his ears. He came in through the back door, last time. Well, the other doctor, but he remembered it all the same. Now they were coming through the front, where a large staircase greeted them. 

Jackie was putting her purse down and getting sorted when the maid came rushing up to Rose. “Oh, you’re back! She has been crying for you as soon as your father left. I’ve tried everything.” Everything happened so fast. Jackie started, futilely, to cover her tracks but The Doctor was gone. He was running up the stairs two at a time and Rose chasing after him calling his name. 

Rose was right on his heels, he didn’t know the house like she did but it wasn’t hard to find a crying baby. The Doctor stopped almost immediately just inside the nursery, looking at the toddler in her crib. Rose clutched the door frame catching her breath, watching and waiting. 

The Doctor walked calmly to the crib and the baby stopped crying, looking intently at the new person. There was a moment between them. Recognition, maybe? “Ohh, there’s my girl.” He said lifting her from the crib and putting her on his hip. “Don’t cry,” he smiled at her. “There’s no need to cry. I’m here. Daddy’s here.” 

Rose clutched at her mouth trying to deafen the sob she choked on. She remembered that day with only two minutes left, how he looked when she told him, both elated and terrified. It wasn’t a look that said he thought the woman he loved was pregnant with another man’s child. It was a look of a man who knew that she was pregnant with _his_ child. And in that moment… In that moment, Rose had to decide if she was strong enough to save the Universe. Because she knew that if she had told him The Doctor would have ripped every universe apart, including hers, just to get to them. 

The woman he loved was pregnant with his child. The last child of Gallifrey had a descendant. Before she had been ripped from him she had declared that she would always be with him. She chose _him_ over her own _family_. Family meant everything to him and she had said he was hers. So in that moment, on the worst day of her life, in the last two minutes she had to decide. Her happiness or the survival of all universes. 

Catching her breath, through her teary gaze, and her cheeks stained with mascara and eyeliner, she saw him reaching out for her. Their daughter on his hip with their matching brown eyes. His gaze intense upon her. Timidly she reached for him and found herself buried against his chest. “I’m sorry!” She cried. “I’m so sorry!” the sobs wracking through her again. 

He gently shushed her, telling her everything would be okay. He had taken one look at his daughter and knew. Knew that she was his and that Rose had lied that day. He briefly wondered if people called Rose cruel for keeping this lie. His hand rubbed up and down her arm, as her sobs subsided. The Doctor bent his head and kissed the top of hers. “I know… It’s alright…” He breathed in her scent, and watched as waves of memories played for him like a movie. He felt her arms wrap around his waist. Though she kissed him back on the beach, this was the embrace they had both been waiting for. “Sometimes a lie is kinder than the truth.” 


End file.
